The Department of Interior (DOI) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) set a precedent for smart solar energy in a recent decision to approve three large-scale solar projects in the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone of southern Nevada.

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Saturday, May 30, 2015 | By EarthShare | Comments Off on Costa Rica: A Model for Sustainability

Costa Rica: A Model for Sustainability

By Erica Flock

The mountains north of Costa Rica’s capital city San Jose are covered in small coffee farms. To the untrained eye, they’re quite picturesque but Michelle Deugd of the Rainforest Alliance urges the group I’m touring with to look closer. These farms are missing an important, sustainable feature: trees.

Not only does coffee grow best under shade trees, this simple practice helps preserve biodiversity. The Rainforest Alliance works in Costa Rica and many other countries to help farmers adopt green practices like this and today we’re visiting one such farm: Doka Estate Coffee.

Unlike most of the farms around it, Doka is preserving its trees, phasing out the use of most pesticides, and incorporating many other sustainable practices. Quality coffee like this earns a better price in the market, and workers are spared the damaging health effects of pesticides. During the tour where we learn about the sorting and drying of coffee beans, we hear a variety of birds calling from nearby trees. Managed right, a coffee farm makes great habitat for wildlife.

Like many tropical countries, Costa Rica lost a significant portion of its forests to agriculture in the 20th century. The US was responsible for most of this damage: they provided massive “aid” loans to cattle farmers in Costa Rica starting in the 1960s in order to feed Americans’ growing appetite for meat.

It’s not easy to come back from losing 80 percent of your forests, but Costa Rica is making a valiant effort through its payment for ecosystem services (PES) program. Using revenue from a gas tax, the government is paying small landowners to help reforest the country, with special attention to water resources and areas of high poverty. Their goal is to have 60 percent of the country covered in forests, a significant feat for any country.

Coffee beans drying in the sun at Doka Estate

This ambition is paying off for Costa Rica’s tourism sector: it now surpasses agriculture as the country’s biggest industry. People all over the world are drawn to Costa Rica’s renowned national parks and plentiful ecolodges.

In the midst of this tourism boom, the Rainforest Alliance is giving hotels and lodges the tools they need to run sustainably too. They train hotel employees and tour operators, provide marketing support to certified businesses, and strengthen international ecotourism standards. Their work complements the policies the Costa Rican government has passed to ensure that large and small businesses alike respect the country’s people and environment.

Nestled inside a cloud forest is an ecolodge that’s earned the country’s top green ranking: Villa Blanca. The lodge employs on-site composting and gray water treatment. Neighboring farms provide food for the dining hall and employees volunteer in the community. Visitors to the lodge not only soak up the transcendent beauty of the cloud forest, but also learn about green practices they could adopt when they go home.

Not all hotels in Costa Rica are doing it right. Some major hotel chains that offer all-inclusive coastal vacations don’t require visitors to engage with or give back to the communities they’re among. It’s a troubling, unchecked trajectory according to the documentary film The Goose With the Golden Eggs.

But with the help of groups like the Rainforest Alliance, that could change. “If there’s a country that can pull off [sustainability], it’s Costa Rica,” says Sergio Musmanni, ‎Senior Advisor of the Low Carbon Development Program at German Development Cooperation Agency in Costa Rica. Already, Costa Rica gets most of its energy from renewable sources and has banned hunting and mining. As the world moves toward a cleaner future, we would do well to look here for sustainable inspiration.

Friday, May 29, 2015 | By The Wilderness Society | Comments Off on Interior’s plans for imperiled Greater Sage-Grouse complement state and county efforts to balance development and conservation in Idaho

More than 50 million acres of Bureau of Land Management Land could include more conservation measures to help sage-grouse, based on plans announced by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell today in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The plan released for Idaho is meant to pair the protection of sage-grouse habi

A new multi-state plan for the greater sage-grouse could include conservation measures to protect more than 50 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land that provides critical habitat for the species. Secretary Sally Jewell announced the plan on May 28 in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Thursday, May 28, 2015 | By The Wilderness Society | Comments Off on Interior’s plans for imperiled Greater Sage-Grouse complement state and county efforts to balance development and conservation across the West

The future of more than 50 million acres of Bureau of Land Management Land could include more conservation measures based on plans announced by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell today. When adopted and implemented, the federal plans for managing the conservation of Greater Sage-Grouse could

Citing some of “the most beautiful and iconic landscapes on earth” in Teton County’s backyard, the board of commissioners Tuesday morning unanimously passed a resolution that “opposes any and all efforts by the State of Wyoming to obtain the wholesale transfer of federal